Theater: Off-Broadway pioneer Israel Horovitz sets many of his plays in his adopted hometown of Gloucester, Mass., which is where the triangular tug-of-war, Fighting Over Beverley, takes place. But the story is more about cultural differences between England and the United States, as well as later-life love and liberation, than it is about the texture of the New England fishing port. Back during World War II, fighter pilots —- one a Brit, the other a Yank — both vied for a comely teen named Beverley. The American won her hand, but now 52 years later, the Brit arrives on her doorstep to take her home with him. Sandra Shipley shines in the title role, and Louis Tyrrell, producing director of The Theatre at Arts Garage, stages it tidily. Continuing through March 23. Call (561) 450-6357 for tickets.
Film: What New Age magicians Penn & Teller are known for is explaining their illusions, then performing them and the astonishment factor remains intact. They pull off the same trick with Tim’s Vermeer, a documentary about a Texas video engineer who is obsessed with the super-realistic techniques of Dutch master Johannes Vermeer. So he builds all the furniture in a painting called The Music Lesson, as well as a camera obscura, in order to learn how Vermeer pulled off the trick. Penn narrates, Teller directs the film and their sly sense of humor and wonder are all over the movie. Now playing at the Living Room Theaters in Boca Raton.
Festival of the Arts Boca: It’s quite a weekend at the Festival of the Arts Boca, which opened last night with violinist Itzhak Perlman playing the Mendelssohn Violin Concerto. Tonight, the innovative Bill T. Jones/Arnie Zane Dance Company takes the stage at 7:30 p.m. On the nine-member troupe’s program is D-Man in the Waters, which is set, appropriately enough to music of Mendelssohn: The Octet for strings, written when he was in his teens. Tomorrow, it’s a twofer, with the eminent public affairs writer James Fallows discussing China in a 4 p.m. talk at the Cultural Arts Center, followed at 8 p.m. by the great Latin jazz trumpeter Arturo Sandoval. Now a resident of Los Angeles after many years in Florida, Sandoval will perform a concert of music in tribute to the bebop trumpet pioneer Dizzy Gillespie.
Sunday afternoon, “spiritual teacher” Barbara Schmidt presents a 4 p.m. talk about one of the minor classics of accessible philosophy, Viktor Frankl’s Man’s Search for Meaning, at the Cultural Arts Center, and at 8 p.m., Perlman returns to the amphiteater stage with Cantor Yitzchak Meir Helfgot and arranger Hankus Netsky for a concert of 20th-century Jewish cantorial music called Eternal Echoes. Call the box office at 866-571-2787 or visit www.festivaloftheartsboca.org.